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Kwyndig posted:But Catalyst? They don't know how to successfully run a business any more than Petersen does. Yes, but he likes one of the guys running Catalyst so it's clearly the right choice.
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Aug 4, 2023 01:28
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inferis posted:I could be mixing it up with lone wolf or another game book but I thought it was ff. Poking a chart in the back was Lone Wolf. And that was the official resolution mechanism, dice weren't involved.
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Aug 9, 2023 14:48
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Man, I could not disagree more with the idea that good games are never crowdfunding exclusive. There's a specific sort of product that appeals to retail distribution - good margins with a price tag that people will be willing to pay without a lot of second guessing, wide audience, can fit a decent number of copies on the shelf, etc. Very little of that has anything to do with whether a game is good, and one of the things that is actually good about crowdfunding is its ability to connect more niche games directly to the audiences that will appreciate them. As for Ascendancy - I think it's reasonable to have concerns about the dude's ability to deliver, and I'm not entirely sure there myself. But some of the level of ambition is a little overblown the way people are talking about it. Like...it being solo, coop, competitive and potentially social deduction? Those are all the same game with pretty much the same rules and mechanics. It just has the option of doing team games with or without hidden teams, or replacing one or more human players with bots. (Which have multiple difficulties so they're easier as an extra player in a PvP game and harder if you're doing coop or solo.) And the "legacy" thing is basically a couple minor between-game rewards and getting certain results "unlocks" new scenarios (he was quick to say you can just play whatever scenarios if you'd rather). There is a TTS module to try for yourself if you're on the fence about the design. It seems fairly solid if a bit overstuffed to me. (Mostly in terms of the number of directions you can go with your play meaning you can essentially ignore entire mechanics if that's not your strategy that game. But that's also kinda cool? IDK.) Like I say, I'm more worried about production logistics etc. (I haven't backed yet, but I'm debating it.) malkav11 fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Aug 21, 2023 |
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Aug 21, 2023 06:09
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I think actually explicitly promising to keep stuff KS only sucks and folks shouldn't do it but in my experience it's usually promos and bling and maybe expansions, not entire games. What is way more common is, as is the case with Ascendancy (and most Awaken Realms games, and once upon a time Chip Theory, etc) is that the game either doesn't make sense for retail or retailers aren't biting and the creators can't reasonably promise that retail will happen or that they'll be able to do expansions or reprints at the point where they're funding it in the first place. Which has the effect of things being more or less crowdfunding exclusive, but not necessarily the intent. And I have a lot of great crowdfunded games that I've never seen at retail and even if they officially had retail distribution may not have actually been practically available for long. (Although I do also have a few that I did find that way, like Spirit Island, though I've backed all the subsequent expansions.) You do usually have a second or third bite at the apple with reprint/expansion projects if things have been at all successful, but not always. And I wouldn't be surprised if I have one or two games that haven't come back into availability because either the company went out of business or came under new ownership. I think Darkest Night is a fantastic game, for example, and as far as I know the new owners of the Victory Point Games brand have made no attempt to reprint the Second Edition that was Kickstarted several years back nor does it appear to be commercially available. Anyway. Like I say, in this case you can play the game on TTS right now, which I think is a pretty solid sign that the creators are confident in the game itself and what I have seen in play is, while not enough to make a full prognosis, does suggest it's at least functional and quite possibly cool. I just don't know that first time creators will know WTF they're doing as far as the actual logistics of getting it made and shipped. Which, most of the time, just means late and possibly out of pocket, but sometimes...
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Aug 22, 2023 00:51
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Jedit posted:Final Girl Series 3 has launched and is funded already. Feature Film themes this time are Terminator 2, Hellraiser, Stranger Things (inevitably), Saw and Tremors. Some big shake-ups to the mechanics: some FFs have uniquely different maps, the Terminator-based FF lets you recruit the Killer as an ally against an even worse Killer if you want, and there's an optional Tears system that makes the game a bit easier by letting you cash in negative results for bonuses. The Tremors box is also riffing on A Quiet Place for the killer.
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Sep 20, 2023 06:43
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So glad I didn't back any of those campaigns. I do have like four outstanding with Petersen Games and a couple with Blacklist so it's not like I completely dodged bullets. Though, incredibly, somehow both of those situations seem less hosed and irrecoverable than Mythic's. Like, Petersen Games has managed to deliver the oldest outstanding campaign (not one I backed alas) and now has an identifiable source of assistance and funding to make the rest happen (i.e. Catalyst). And Blacklist...well, that's still probably a train wreck but some of their licensed poo poo has made it out and Tides of the Dragon has been seen in the wild, albeit not in the US. I don't hold out high hopes for the other stuff they had going, but Tides might maybe see the light of day? I'll be honest, that's the one I care about. Dire Alliance Horror was the other game I backed and it looked fun but given a choice between another bunch of content for my favorite game they put out and a fairly thin spread for a one-off game I haven't tried yet and almost certainly will never be expanded or spun out into a franchise? Definitely prefer the former.
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Sep 23, 2023 01:57
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Infinitum posted:I'd honestly be curious if there are any Goons who have gone all-in on one of these multi-box campaigns cause they thought there was a good game hiding under the 20 shelves of Kallax space you have to give up for them. Sure have. I have no use or desire for minis but I've had a great time with all-in Glorantha: The Gods' War, Planet Apocalypse, Street Masters, Nemesis (and Lockdown), Middara, Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, Chronicles of Drunagor, and Sword & Sorcery. Aeon Trespass in particular is one of my all time favorites at this point and while I'm not all that into dungeon crawlers as a genre I think Middara is probably the best purestrain rendition of that experience I've played and Drunagor and S&S aren't half bad either. Certainly I've had a lot more fun with all three than I ever did with traditional retail crawlers like Descent. I also have all in Lords of Ragnarok, and The Edge Dawnfall (I don't have all in but even the base 1.6 box is ridiculous), but I haven't gotten those to table yet. But again, if they offered standee/token/meeple/etc versions I'd skip the minis in a heartbeat. And I'd have much less stuffed shelves so I really wish they would. I was super glad that I went standee on Oathsworn, for example, when I saw the multiple additional giant boxes of just minis that the mini pledges entailed. I don't think it's that hard to distinguish between "these people know what they're doing and have a great idea for a game (and also are sadly really obsessed with minis)" and "these people are selling a pile of minis with the veneer of a game over them", and I happily skip the latter.
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Sep 26, 2023 23:27
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Bouquet posted:Based on the review linked above, it sounds like maybe you should skip opening Lords of Ragnorak. Maybe you can get a few more bucks for it if you can list it as new in box. I do not find NPI useful as a barometer of whether I will enjoy a game.
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Sep 27, 2023 15:30
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MuscaDomestica posted:Looking at the decks was fun. "wow they are all the same except half have one special card!" It's a *little* better than that. Characters have different distributions of the generic cards and three (four with the X-Men onwards characters) special cards. A couple joke characters have all special cards. But it's certainly not a game I think warrants all those boxes or the north of $1000 pricetag an all-in would command at this point, and I will never buy it. Or probably anything else CMON puts out at this point.
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Sep 28, 2023 03:55
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That Italian Guy posted:Can't speak about the other two, but X-havens are kind of the opposite of the super bloated KS the guy from NPI was complaining about. They are massive boxes, yeah, but they are so dense with actual game that, if Isaac was Fantasy Flight (or almost any other developer, really), those boxes would have been split in a core and like 10+ expansions. Isofarian Guard is also extremely stuffed (and was underpriced like Gloomhaven was in the original crowdfunding - I think the price was like...$70? It's now going for closer to $200 and for good reason.). And I didn't include Oathsworn because they have offered a standee-only option that means the single giant box you get if you go that route (I did) is all meat, no fluff.
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Sep 28, 2023 15:02
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I have zero interest in 3D printing minis, so maybe I'm behind the times but I thought companies got significantly better quality results from professional factory printing than a home user with a low end affordable 3d printer would for miniatures. If so that'd be another reason to buy on crowdfunding. But honestly, I don't think most of the time this stuff is cynical calculation on the part of the creators or actually entirely dismissive of the game from consumers. One thing that's become super obvious to me over the last almost 12 years I've spent on Kickstarter and later crowdfunding sites is that the vast majority of people involved in any way with boardgaming as a hobby love minis. Adore them. Think they make games better. Creators are sad if they don't think it's practical to fund minis for their game and add them on subsequent Kickstarters as the brand takes off. Reviewers gush over them (even the folks at SU&SD, while generally very down on crowdfunding and its emphasis on minis, talk about minis being cool). Players look up games based on minis they see on the table. Etc etc etc. If there's a choice between minis and not minis, there's usually like an 85-90% uptake rate on the former. And it remains by and large a field of enthusiasts making things they think are cool and other people agree, even if they've mostly got tunnel vision on the minis. That doesn't mean they're right, but you know. Tastes vary and all that.
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Sep 28, 2023 23:43
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Bottom Liner posted:In timely related news, Backerkit just did release theirs saying that they explicitly restrict the use of AI on their platform: People are talking about that like it's in stark contrast to Kickstarter's policy but if you actually read it it would absolutely allow projects like the Terraforming Mars expansion(s) (which used human beings to rework AI generated starting points) among other AI-related stuff. I guess it's slightly more restrictive than KS's "just say you're using it" though.
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Oct 4, 2023 14:57
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HidaO-Win posted:Really excited for Cohors Cthulhu, love 2d20 as a system and its a really fun time period to play in. I *am* a sicko completist...but I'm not a mini-assembly or dealing with resin sicko. Annoys me that they're attaching gameplay content to what is essentially a display model.
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Oct 5, 2023 14:43
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CitizenKeen posted:Third party shipping companies that tell you your order has shipped but not what it is that's being shipped... Better than third party shipping companies that tell the publisher that they've completed fulfillment but haven't sent your game. (I've had no word whatsoever about my copy of Voidfall and I've seen several other US folks report the same.)
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Oct 20, 2023 01:51
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NinjaDebugger posted:Was it floship? They screwed chronicle on their paint brush kickstarter exactly like that, they had to sue to get the stock back. Whalebacker. They also apparently had inadequate packaging on a bunch of packages so people's games were arriving smashed up. Honestly the impression I'm getting of them, if I were Mindclash I would not work with them again. But Septima is already fulfilling through them so maybe they'll do better on that. Fingers crossed. It'd be pretty dumb if I ended up getting Septima before Voidfall though.
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Oct 20, 2023 03:25
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I was definitely curious about Dragon's Down and then it launched and the core game was $100 and the expansion was $75 and I am not $175 (or even $100 for the core game) curious. Like, I've seen it played. And it's got some interesting offbeat systems. But it's also *highly* random, there are special dice for everything you do and you can have piles of extremely dangerous monsters land on you and attack on turn 1. And NPCs, quests, shops, etc all randomized. (At least in the sandbox mode, didn't see the scenario approach demonstrated but I tend to assume it still inherits a fair amount of the randomness). Not necessarily the worst thing, but if you're going to do that, I need your game to be affordably priced, because something that random isn't a lifestyle game for me, it's something I'd break out in certain moods or as a solo timekiller. $100 isn't that. And I need plenty of variety, so I'd want expansion(s) too, and we're sailing even further from affordable by then. Similarly I might have had some mild interest in the Secrets of the Lost Tomb remaster that dropped today, as kind of a different spin on the sort of experience of your Eldritch Horror type of thing, but that's $100 for the core box all the way up to $400 for all-in. Apparently that includes 16 expansions but...nope. I want something a little more robust for that kind of money. Edit: haha, holy poo poo, I hadn't scrolled all the way down the Dragon's Down KS page, so I missed that they're expecting to charge $150 retail for the core box and not sell expansions at retail at all. And also their AI policy is "we contract to humans who use AI". malkav11 fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Oct 25, 2023 |
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Oct 25, 2023 06:35
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Ropes4u posted:Estimated shipping of $35 for the base game means a basic pledge puts you over $150 for a beer a pretzel’s game. Yep. This is why I don't do CMON games anymore and especially not Zombicide. It's not that they're particularly bad games, some are even fairly good. (Zombicide's not amazing but I had fun with it.) But they're always expensive and usually take up tons of space. And I can handle that for an experience I think is straight up great (Aeon Trespass, say), but it's never something I seek out and CMON has never made a game I feel strongly enough about to deal with that side of them. Like, Marvel United is a pretty good game. But outside of core boxes that aren't really enough variety (at least for me), the pricetag and space requirements go up real fast. and it's far too light for me to want to spend hundreds and entire Kallax cubes on.
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Nov 16, 2023 05:43
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Awaken Realms was *alleged* to use AI art in Dragon Eclipse by someone who, IMO, hasn't looked at very many Awaken Realms games because Dragon Eclipse looks very similar (from what's been made available to the public) to the other Awaken Realms games I own going back as far as Lords of Hellas, well before AI art was widely commercially available as far as I know. But you should as ever make your own determinations and spend your money according to your own conscience.
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Nov 26, 2023 02:04
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Your definition of "overwhelming evidence" and mine must differ quite a bit. I don't rule it out, but I am entirely unconvinced. But really my main point is that it was argued, however convincingly I leave up to the individual, not established to be fact. And it's kinda uncool to then just assume it as so established.
malkav11 fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Nov 26, 2023 |
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Nov 26, 2023 05:34
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It is uncool to just assume malfeasance that has not been actually proven, yes. As I say I am not convinced by the evidence provided upthread and the game looks like all their other games to me. (Which, if they were a newer company, might just mean they all use AI art, but here I don't think that's actually possible.) Nor did anyone else I've spoken to it have any idea why y'all thought that, including a guy who's actually played a prototype of the game and is vehemently anti-AI art. That said, I agree that the fact that they've refused to respond to the question does raise flags. I'd otherwise dismiss the idea entirely. But it's not conclusive, and it shouldn't be treated like it is. Edit: The fact that they're looking for a "junior AI researcher" is rather more concerning. (They do also make computer games, it's possible it's about videogame AI, the site is in Polish and I'm relying on Google Translate. But it doesn't sound that way.) Oh and just a reminder that the BackerKit policy has been widely interpreted to be a flat ban on AI but is actually nearly as permissive as Kickstarter's. malkav11 fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Nov 26, 2023 |
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Nov 26, 2023 06:20
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To be clear, they didn't acquire Blacklist, they acquired the Street Masters IP (and are fulfilling the outstanding crowdfunding project for same). I seem to recall they also bought the AltarQuest IP earlier (which did not have any outstanding projects) but I'm not 100% on that. In a Discord I'm on Brady Sadler has said that he and his brother are "fairly heavily involved" with Steamforged on this and that he's been pushing for them to try and acquire Dire Alliance as well. I'm not sure exactly what that means practically speaking but I would love to see more Sadler-designed stuff, even though Steamforged wouldn't have been my ideal company for that. Edit: And Street Masters is *by far* the most successful thing Blacklist have done, with a ton of already designed material that's currently out of print and in significant demand, so even with the obligation of fulfilling Tides of the Dragon out of pocket it shouldn't be that hard to make some money on it. malkav11 fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Nov 30, 2023 |
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Nov 30, 2023 05:50
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I think they're starting to move away from that approach lately, probably because shipping is so loving expensive these days.
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Dec 2, 2023 05:03
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He and his team have also published a few D&D open game license books already so they're not total newbies. I know one's called Strongholds & Followers, I don't remember what all else because I have never played 5E and have no personal interest in buying supplements for it. But he definitely has dozens of hours of Youtube content out there where you can hear all about his philosophies about GMing, game design, and so on. As well as a decent chunk of D&D actual play campaign, "The Chain of Acheron". I would trust them to make a pretty solid, focused RPG and the things I'm hearing sound like they know what they want and have a plan. It's just not what I want from RPGs is all.
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Dec 8, 2023 01:17
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CODChimera posted:also anyone been following along with Nemesis Retaliation? I feel like they are getting a little too greedy with some of this stuff, like there's 3 packs of acrylic tokens for Retaliation and then 2 more for the previous games. but then you have the "constructs" pack for the original that has hp counter bases for the aliens(actually useful) but its packaged with heap of not so useful terrain. AND they still haven't even said what is cross compatible In what sense? They've been very clear that you won't be able to use stuff from previous Nemesis games in Retaliation and you won't be able to use stuff from Retaliation in previous games. The minis are a different scale and the level of action etc is very different. The only question mark is that they plan to offer a character that represents someone like Ripley that survived from the original games into the more Aliens-style game that is Retaliation. It sounds like they want to make that care which original character you use (and some won't be compatible) but they're not done designing that. Comstar posted:I mean this is a huge red flag, a flag of +20 you have got to be kidding me red flag. Why is that a red flag? That's what most of the major VTTs do as far as I know?
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Dec 9, 2023 03:34
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Sorry, missed that you had actually addressed the question I was raising and don't seem to be able to delete my post.
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Dec 9, 2023 06:20
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Kai Tave posted:Also I guess I'm curious what about this game merits having its own customized VTT instead of just using Roll20 or Foundry, like I'm skeptical that the experience is so incredibly unique that it needs a bespoke virtual tabletop system to handle it all. Eh, like, you probably don't need a custom VTT for any game, but having the software specifically do the things your game does without any need for the end user to figure out how to turn dials and levers to put it there and without a baseline assumption of D&D specifically (which is my experience of Roll20 at least) would probably be a nicer experience, especially when you're explicitly focusing on map and grid based combat the way they are, and in a way that's already sounding very distinct from D&D's take on it. I personally, as someone who has done exclusively theater of the mind play and typically with lightweight story-focused games like PBTA stuff or FITD or the like, would probably have preferred to play those games on a VTT that had that in mind from the off. (I think Role might be that, but I also don't have the players I was doing roll20 with anymore so I haven't investigated.) Roll20 just felt like it had so much cruft and so much of the screen devoted to stuff I did not need at all. None of which is to say they'll manage to deliver that of course.
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Dec 9, 2023 19:07
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neonchameleon posted:What's worrying me about Colville's game is how laser-focused it seems. From his description it's like 4e+, with there not being a simple fighter (or simple blast mage) as every class has to play resource juggling. I have no objection to resource juggling, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea. Sure. Neither are a bunch of the other things that they're doing. But not only do RPGs not have to be for everyone, but I would argue they are better off for not trying to be. This isn't going to be a game for me, but I think it's going to be a lot better suited to the people it is for than if it tried to include me.
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Dec 12, 2023 02:59
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Doublehex posted:There are many things I expected in 2024. I was also very startled by this. Of course, I'm still dubious about the Megacon era of the game design - thinking based on a preview video some months back that the Ulisses version they talk about as an upcoming prospect will finally be the key to unlocking the potential of the game. But of course that's yet more money on a big ol' pile at this point....
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Jan 1, 2024 21:40
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CMON and Mythic have always felt like companies doing very similar things to me, so it makes sense to me as a new home for some of Mythic's outstanding projects...but I also wonder how long before CMON flames out in similar fashion... Neither have been my cup of tea (I did back Zombicide for a little while but got rid of it, and Xenoshyft, but that's it, never touched Mythic stuff.) so I'm just kinda rubbernecking. Hel did tempt me but turns out I dodged a bullet there.
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Jan 27, 2024 03:49
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Bottom Liner posted:That campaign was 2015, holy poo poo. Highly doubt any backers still expected to see anything from them, but surprised they held on this long without formally going bankrupt. As I said elsewhere I really thought they were already out of business.
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Mar 14, 2024 03:58
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A couple points: Yes I have absolutely been priced out of backing a game at all due to my completionist tendencies and addons just piling up. Horror is done adding gameplay addons, the things they've said are coming next week are going to be cosmetic, I'd guess probably some fancier versions of the tokens and such. Also, these addons are not Kickstarter exclusive, although they are supposedly discounted (I think odds are that if you can get them at an actual retailer the price will be similar to the KS price if not better). Not that they're not doing KS exclusivity bullshit, but it's for stuff that's included at the base pledge and they said they'll have the gameplay from that in a future expansion. The addons also aren't stretch goals, they're just pacing the reveal cause...I don't know really, I guess some consumer psychology poo poo. I'm kind of surprised y'all didn't expect addons, I very much did. This is a design that's so clearly and extensively modular that I would have been shocked if we never saw anything beyond the base box and SGs. And frankly, it's almost unheard of at this point to Kickstart a game and just have one pledge level and one box and not have any additional content at all. I think I've done a few solo games like that but that's about it. (Witchcraft, and the current Solo Game of the Month series entry for April come to mind.) Personally I don't feel like this one is particularly unreasonable, although I'll probably wait til the PM to do addons. Debating whether I want the monster box, in particular - I do think I'd like some different regular monsters to mix things up, but the fact that you're only getting one new set for that kind of money...well, I blame it on the minis.
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Apr 12, 2024 00:56
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They were pretty up-front about intending expansions but people might have interpreted that to mean "down the line", rather than "as addons in this project". Although I'm pretty sure it means both, in this case.
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Apr 13, 2024 06:24
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This must be a backer communication channel that isn't Kickstarter, because I haven't heard anything from them and I'm waiting for 3 different projects.
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Apr 14, 2024 05:46
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Got like 7 of that update. Whee. But for the outstanding projects they did edit it to promise that the specific project being updated was coming. So there's that.
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Apr 16, 2024 02:27
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Desfore posted:There’s no gameplay videos, or even really a walkthrough of gameplay. It doesn't sound like they're very good about communicating with content creators - Mike from One Stop Coop Shop said he reached out (since it is, after all, a coop game) and they did respond (which apparently they often don't) to say there wasn't a prototype but they had a TTS demo...and then never actually provided him with access to it. Maybe before the campaign ends. Who knows. Me, I'll probably pass, never been that impressed with CMON. But playthroughs have an outside chance of getting my attention.
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Apr 18, 2024 06:29
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JazzFlight posted:Of course it goes without saying this AI art bullshit is absolute garbage but I did notice something else a little eyebrow raising: Pretty sure that expired years ago. It's just that CCGs had mostly died by then.
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May 4, 2024 05:35
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